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Saturday, September 28, 2013

A Reflection On The State Of The Blogosphere, With Gratuitious Pictures So You Might Read It

Gratuitous hot boys to get your attention.

I undertook a somewhat depressing task last night. I deleted dead links from my blog roll. How sad to see so many blogs I love either dormant, or just gone. I decided that I was going to retain links to blogs I like that haven't updated in ages in the vain hope that someday they will revive. Best example is the DreamBoats blog, which was great, not because of the beautiful pictures posted there, but because of the funny and creative approach it's creator took to the subject of beautiful boys in the media. Not a day goes by when I don't mourn the lose of that site.

It's bad enough when a favored blog disappears without warning- "Loco Luke," where are you and your Luscious Lads?- but it seems even worse when a blog's title and URL is usurped by some outside force. F**K, I Love You was a lovely, funny, real account of one persons life, and now it is nothing more than a standard issue porn spam trap. Finally removing that link actually made me cry.

Is the traditional blog dead? Have people's attention spans degenerated to the point that only the low maintenance, quick fix joys of Tumblr will do? I post to a Tumblr blog almost every day. I don't really get anything from it, certainly not a sense of accomplishment or achievement. I sometimes do with this blog, very occasionally, but only when I accept the fact that I won't necessarily receive feedback, or praise, or anything at all except perhaps some pride in a job well done. It's usually the blog entries into which I have put the most effort that get the least feedback, and lowest traffic. It's a fact. I have a small group of readers who do take the time, not every day, but now and again, to tell me what they are thinking, or acknowledge a post they enjoyed, or even to reassure me when I am most obviously need of a boost. They know who they are, and I love them, I really do. But sometimes when you see that thousands of people have visited your site on any given day, and most don't bother to say a thing, good, bad, or indifferent, it's hard not to feel like it's all a huge waste of time. I'm not threatening to close down this site, I'm not, but I am saying that there are days, and weeks, and months when it's easy to ask, "Why bother?"

Some blogs disappear because the powers that be somewhere simply decided to shut them down for some reason. Please check out this site to find out more about "disappeared" sites. When that happens it is truly infuriating, like helplessly witnessing an act of murder. But those blog owners can, and often do, live on to fight another day. The worst thing is when a blog owner lets "Why bother?" become "To Hell with it" and closes their blog. It breaks my heart. It makes me wish I were a better audience.